“Oh, that’s good,” he muses.
“Yeah, she has her mother’s touch.”
Vince locks eyes with me, curious.
I pull a knee up to face him. “You can ask about them if you want to.”
“How old is she? Your daughter.”
“Fifteen.”
“And she’s your only kid?”
“Yup. Her mother left me when Georgie was four. About two years after we bought this place, actually.” I lower my gaze, pain blooming behind my ribs.
“I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. She was right to leave me, and it wasn’t a brutal divorce or anything. We’re still close friends. Sarah just… well, she wanted more for me than I wanted for myself. I’ll put it that way.”
Vince furrows his brows.
I pick at the label on the water bottle. “I’m gay, Vince. Sarah saw that before I did. Well, that’s not true. Sheacceptedit before I did.” I chew my lip for a second before continuing. “I shoved it down for a long time. Ignored it. Pretended it wasn’t me. It’s what I thought I was supposed to do, you know. Marry a woman, have a family. But Sarah…” I shake my head, warmth spreading through me. “That woman loves me so much that she wouldn’t let that part of me stay hidden. Once she saw it, she… well, I don’t want to say embraced it, because it was pretty rough for a while. But she didn’t shame me for it either, if that makes sense. Not once. She helped me come to terms with it, even helped melikethat part of myself.”
“She encouraged you to be with men?”
“No. Not like that. I never cheated on her. But she helped me understand the whole reason I was shoving it down was because I thought it made me weak. That’s what my family made me believe, growing up. And I didn’t want to be anything less than a great husband and father.”
Vince shakes his head. “There’s nothing weak about being gay.”
I smile at him. “I know that now. But I didn’t see it that way for a long time. I had to work through it. And now I like who I am. I’m proud of it. My family is too. They came around. My parents and my brother.” I take another drink. “I’m not proud of what Idid to her, though. Or to Georgie. They lost the chance of being a whole family because I couldn’t be honest with myself.”
I’m still amazed, every single day, that Sarah hadn’t thrown me to the street. It’s what I expected. What I deserved. But she still considers me her friend, and I hope to never lose that.
At his silence, I finally look up, and I can’t read his expression. I don’t know if he’s uncomfortable with me now or if he’s just processing. Maybe he’s re-examining every moment we’ve shared together, looking for some hint of attraction.
If so, he won’t need to look far.
“Have you… been with anyone since?” He seems surprised by his own question.
I answer honestly. “Oh, yeah. Once the divorce was final, I, um, leaned into my sexuality pretty hard. Was with a new guy whenever Georgie was with her mother. Sometimes more than one.” I lower my voice. “But the thrill of the hook-ups died off pretty quickly.”
“So you haven’t dated anyone?”
“No.” I laugh coldly. “Guess I keep myself a little too busy to date. Darren and I opened the business the year after the divorce. I poured everything into it.”
“And Georgie? Does she know?”
“Yeah, Georgie knows. She loves teasing me about it, actually. It’s become this thing between us.” I roll my eyes. “She tried to set me up with her science teacher a few years ago, but that didnotgo well. I had to explain you can’t force two gay men together any more than you can force a straight man and a straight woman together.”
Vince uncaps his bottle, taking a drink. “I’ve… been with a man too. Only one.”
He sounds ashamed, like he’s never told anyone this before—in which case, why is he telling me?—or he was never out with the guy.
I wait patiently for him to explain.
“It was one of my squad members in the army. We grew close and often fooled around, especially during our deployment.”
“Hey, there’s no shame in that,” I say.
